GoodLife Savings Credit Union

We were warmly greeted by the Executive Director Hoesa (her first name) and two of her staff. The interpretor assigned to us is Inkay. A very interesting lady who works (her real job) in the area of environmental policy development for the central government. We spent the next two and a half hours meeting with the E.D. and her staff learning more about Good Life SCC, past and present. The credit union faces many challenges as are most credit union's in Mongolia right now. Back in 2008 hundreds of small savings and loans went bankrupt during the world financial crisis. Thousands of Mongolians lost their life savings in many cases. The system has been trying to regain consumer confidence ever since. They've made great headway but still have along way to go. However we already believe we have a number of ideas to share so we're anxious to continue our work over the next three days and learn more about them. After lunch the days agenda required us to spend the afternoon on the road visiting three of the credit uions members. It's not unusual for credit unions involved in the coaching program to want to "show off" the special guests from Canada. It's also about the credit union showing us the heart warming success stories that personify the good they do and the impact their services have on their members livihoods. Personally I love this part. It's the reason I come. This is the moment of truth. This is where you see the impact credit unions can have here.  People lifted out of poverty because the credit union believed in them and gave them a chance. Today we found such a story. I'm in the process of putting it all into words. Stay tuned.